Table of Contents

I The Problem of Legal Positivism
1: The Basic Positions
2: The Practical Significance of the Debate
II The Concept of Law
1: Central Elements
2: Positivistic Concepts of Law
3: Critique of Positivistic Concepts of Law
III The Validity of Law
1: Concepts of Validity
2: Collisions of Validity
3: Basic Norm
IV Definition

About the Author

Robert Alexy has been Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, since 1986. He was President of the German Section of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) from 1994-1998. Other books published by OUP include A Theory of Legal Argumentation and A Theory of Constitutional Rights.

Reviews

`Review from previous edition ... a valuable addition to the English literature ... as a refreshingly balanced view on the virtues and limitations of the positivist project from beyond the trenches of the Anglo-American debate, it should be at or near the top of any reading list on key issues in contemporary jurisprudence.'
Legal Studies
`It is a delight to see Robert Alexy's Begriff und Geltung des Rechts in English translation. All the more so because the remarkable translation skills of Bonnie Litschewski Paulson and Stanley L. Paulson have contributed to a sharpening of many of the arguments in the book...it is by far the most mature statement of Alexy's ideas on the concept of law while serving very well as a retrospective introduction to the philosophical problems in response to which
he developed the discourse theory of law in the first place...The Argument from Injustice is a major contribution to the non-positivist literature. It will become a standard reference for future research
in normative jurisprudence.'
George Pavlakos, The Modern Law Review 67 (2), 2004